Advances in Agriculture, Sciences and Engineering

Research, Vol 3, No 9 (2013)

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Font Size: Advances in Agriculture, Sciences and Engineering Research HTTP://WWW.EJOURNAL.SEDINST.COM Science Education Development Institute, 2013 Volume 3 (9) Sept: 1151 - 1157, 2013 Printed in Nigeria ISSN: 2276 - 6723

MODULATION AND DEMODULATION TECHNIQUES IN POWERLINE CARRIER

Anyaka, Boniface Onyemaechi, Akuchu, Tohlah Terry And Mbunwe, M. J

Department of Electrical Engineering, University of Nigeria, Nsukka, Nigeria

BONIFACE.ANYAKA@UNN.EDU.NG ABSTRACT Advances in digital communications have made it possible to access the internet by simply plugging your computer to the wall socket in your home. Power line communications (PLC) technology exploits the widespread electric power infrastructure to provide high-speed broadband multimedia services to and within the home or office. Until recently, a fundamental obstacle to the prevalent adoption of PLC technology has been the lack of an international standard issued by globally recognized standardization body. This obstacle has been removed by the approval of the IEEE 1901 standard for Broadband over power line networks opening a new era in the PLC industry. Nonetheless, the characteristics of electrical power grids present some technical challenges for high-speed data communications. Noise at a power outlet is the

sum of noises produced by different appliances connected to the line producing impulsive noise and other narrow-band interference.

KEYWORDS: Advances in digital communications, Power line communications, multimedia services, Broadband

INTRODUCTION In the past several years, the demand for broadband multimedia applications has significantly increased and continues to grow at a rapid pace. Broadband internet access, for instance, is being tremendously demanded and becoming a necessity for homes and businesses.[3] A variety of technologies are currently in use for broadband connectivity to and within homes and offices.

Among those communication technologies, power line communications (PLC) is receiving a huge amount of research interest and presents a very attractive multimedia connectivity solution to the last-mile problem. PLC exploits already-existing electrical networks to deliver high-speed broadband communications. In addition to solving the last-mile connectivity issue, PLC uses the in-building electrical wiring as a local area network providing highspeed networking that includes broadband internet access, voice over IP and home entertainment services to virtually every power socket in residential or business premises. The driving advantage of PLC is that it uses an infrastructure that is much more ubiquitous that any other wired infrastructure hence does not require new wiring [4].

The concept of using power lines (PL) for communication services is not one that has just emerged. The first applications of PLC date back about hundred years ago, when analog communications were employed for remote metering and home automation. It was also important for power supply utilities to have a proper communication link to maintain the operation of high-voltage PLs. However, the attention in the past decade or so has been focused on using PLC for fast internet access as well as other broadband multimedia services. [5]

PLC offers a competitive and cost-effective alternative for internet access and LAN applications. However, large expansion and widespread adoption of this technology has so far been limited by the lack of a universally agreed-on standard issued by a globally recognized standardization body. Most of the PLC products available in the market now are based on the HomePlug standard with its variant (HomePlug 1.0, HomePlug AV and HomePlug BPL). Advances in Agriculture, Sciences and Engineering Research: Volume 3 (9) Sept: 1151 - 1157, 2013

Recently, the first IEEE standard for broadband over power line networks has been approved and was published in February 2011[6]. It is believed that the publication of the IEEE standard 1901-2010 will constitute a significant milestone in the history of PLC and will contribute largely to the development and adoption of PLC applications.

Despite the advantages forward by PLC, this technology conveys communication signals through a medium that was never designed for telecommunication functions. Power lines differ significantly in their structure and physical characteristics from usual communication mediums such as fiber optic coaxial cables [7]. Understanding those properties is essential for the design of PLC systems.

The most important factors that affect communication over power lines are attenuation, multipath fading and noise. PL cables suffer from considerable frequency-dependent attenuation that increases with high frequencies and can be severe for long-distance communications. Moreover, impedance mismatching is commonly present in PL networks causing enormous reflections of the signal, giving rise to multipath fading.

Another persistent impairment for PLC systems is the noise generated by internal and external sources that are either connected or in close proximity to the PLC transmission medium. The noise at any power outlet is the sum of noises produced by different appliances connected to the line plus the background noise on the line. Five types of noise are often found in PL channels [8]: colored background noise, narrowband noise, periodic impulsive noise asynchronous to the mains frequency, periodic impulsive and asynchronous impulsive noise. The first three types are almost stationary and are classified as background noise. The last two types have a time-varying random behavior and are often classified as impulsive noise.

Impulsive noise forms one of the key challenges for PLC systems. It is generally the result of switching transients in power appliances. Typical impulses of this type have short durations ranging from some microseconds up to a few milliseconds and are characterized with very high amplitudes. During the occurrence of impulsive noise, the power spectral density (PSD) of this type of noise can be up to 50 dB higher than the background noise [9].

Due to the presence of impulsive noise and other undesirable characteristics of PL grids, it is crucial for high-speed PLC to select a modulation technique that can stand against such peculiarities. A number of modulation techniques, including single-carrier, multi-carrier and spread spectrum are of interest for PLC engineers and researchers [9], [10]. Among those, orthogonal frequency division multiplexing (OFDM) stands as an excellent candidate for PLC. The basic principle of OFDM is to split high-speed data symbols into slow data streams which then modulate multiple narrowband orthogonal subcarriers simultaneously. This reduced the effect of multipath by enlarging the symbol duration so that, depending on the channel delay spread, only a small portion of the symbol is affected. With the addition of a cyclic time guard, the problem of multipath can be completely eliminated in OFDM. Besides, the effect of impulsive noise is minimized because the received OFDM signal in addition to the added noise is divided by the number of subchannels through the discrete Fourier transform (DFT) operation in the receiver. OFDM offers robustness as well as simple implementation which make this technique a favored candidate for PLC.

OFDM can be fruitfully combined with adaptive modulation techniques that allow individual subcarriers to have different constellation sized, transmit powers, instantaneous Bit-error rate (BER), channel code and so forth. This solves the frequency selectivity issue associated with PLC networks. Subchannels that are affected by fading or narrowband interferers can carry fewer bits or even be zeroed in extreme cases or if the sub-bands are used by wireless operators. To enable high-speed PLC over power lines, adaptive loading algorithms that can efficiently exploit the available spectrum and optimize the performance have to be introduced.

Under harsh channel conditions, the reliability of PLC systems can be improved by the utilization of forward error correction (EEC) methods. Due to the occurrence of busty impulsive noise in PL channels, interleaving need to be employed to reduce the channel memory and help coding schemes, that are designed to combat single errors, to tackle errors caused by burst disturbances. Advances in Agriculture, Sciences and Engineering Research: Volume 3 (9) Sept: 1151 - 1157, 2013

Principle of Power Line Communication The basic principle of power line communications (PLC) is to use the existing electrical power line networks for telecommunication purposes. Over the years power line networks have served as a medium of transmission and distribution of electricity signals. Until recently, communication over power lines was restricted to low-speed functions such as remote metering and operations management that serve the needs of power supply utilities. This limited scope of power line functions changed recently, on account of the tremendous demand for high-speed broadband multimedia communications.

MODULATION TECHNIQUES FOR PLC SYSTEMS Power Line Carrier Systems have to combat hostile channel conditions seldom found in other well-known communication channels. The properties of power line networks and the vulnerability to various types of noise calls for a proper selection of modulation schemes to be used in PLC systems. Three major issues must be taken into account when selecting a modulation scheme for PLC [11]: 1. 2. 3. The susceptibility to different types of noise including impulsive noise with relatively high noise power leading to lower SNR. The PLC channel is a time varying channel with frequency selectivity. Due to electromagnetic compatibility issues, the transmit power in PLC systems is limited to relatively low levels.

In this section, some of the candidate modulation schemes for PLC systems are discussed

Figure 1: Modulation methods for power line communications [6].

Modulation is a technique that enables information to be transferred as changes in an information carrying signal. Modulation is used both for analog and digital information; in the case of analog information, it is effected continuously (soft transitions). In the case of digital information, it is effected step by step (state changes). The unit Advances in Agriculture, Sciences and Engineering Research: Volume 3 (9) Sept: 1151 - 1157, 2013

performing modulation and the corresponding demodulation is called modem. In analog transmission of information, amplitude modulation and frequency modulation are used.

Amplitude Modulation (AM)

Amplitude Modulation (AM) is the simplest form of modulation. The amplitude of the carrier wave is varied in accordance with some characteristic of the modulating signal (which may be analog or digital). The following equations represent an AM signal:

s (t) = Ac [1+m(t)] coswct

Where, m (t) = the modulating signal wc = the carrier frequency Ac = constant, specify power level

Amplitude modulation is used to transmit analog voice (300-3400Hz) modulated on radio frequencies around 450 MHz in the mobile radio system NMT 450, and to transmit TV images in cable-TV networks. The bandwidth of an AM signal is twice the bandwidth of the modulating signal. That is because amplitude modulation results in two sidebands; the frequency above the carrier frequency is called the upper sideband and the frequency below is called the lower sideband. There are single side Band (SSB) modulation techniques that suppress one of the sideband and the resulting SSB-AM signal has the same bandwidth as the modulated signal.

Frequency Modulation (FM) and Phase Modulation (PM) Frequency modulated is used for broadcasting on the FM band (hence the term FM), the sound channel for TV, and certain mobile communication systems. Phase modulation and frequency modulation are special cases of anglemodulation signaling. An angle-modulated signal is represented by:

s (t) = Accost [wc t +θ (t) ]

For PM, the phase is directly proportional to the modulating signal: (t) = Dp m(t)

Where; m (t) = the modulating signal Dp = phase sensitivity of the phase modulator

For FM, the phase is proportional to the integral of m (t); (t) = Df

Where; Df = frequency deviation constant

The reason for calling it frequency modulation lies in the fact that the instantaneous frequency varies about the assigned carrier frequency fc directly proportional to the modulating signal m (t).The instantaneous frequency is the frequency that is present at a particular instant of time and should not be confused with the term frequency as used in the spectrum of the FM signal. Thus the spectrum shows what frequencies are present in the signal over all time. Figure 4 illustrates the concept of AM and FM.

Advances in Agriculture, Sciences and Engineering Research: Volume 3 (9) Sept: 1151 - 1157, 2013

Figure 2. Amplitude and Frequency Modulation [6]

Digital transmission of information Modulation makes it possible to transmit digital information (1s and 0s) on analog carriers (such as radio and light waves). Digital transmission is, in effect, analog transmission of digital information. In the modulation process, a bit or a group of bits is translated into rapid state changes, such as amplitude or phase shift. Digitally modulated bandpass signals are generated by using AM, PM, FM, or QAM (quadrature amplitude modulation) signaling. For digital modulated signals, the modulating signals, m (t) is a digital signal given by some binary or multilevel line code. The basic modulation methods are: 1. 2. 3. Amplitude-shift modulation Frequency-shift modulation, and Phase-shift modulation

In many cases, the purpose of modulation is to squeeze in as many bits per hert as possible; for example, onto a bandpass-filtered telephone line (300-3, 400 Hz) or a limited radio frequency band.

Shift Modulation

Figure 3 shows how amplitude, frequency or phase shift conveys digital information.

Figure 3. Shift Modulation for digitally transmitted information [6]

Advances in Agriculture, Sciences and Engineering Research: Volume 3 (9) Sept: 1151 - 1157, 2013

Frequency-shift modulation is also called frequency-shift keying (FSK). Similarly, another name for phase-shift modulation is phase-shift keying (PSK). In phase-shift modulation, the phase is shifted differentially relative to the previous phase (for example, +90o for o, and +270 for 1), or absolutely, in which case each modulation state is represented by a specific phase (0o for 0, and +180o for 1) relative to a nominal phase (One that is known both by the transmitted and the receiver). The differential variant permits less complicated demodulation equipment and is therefore more common.

An uncomplicated variant of amplitude modulation is used for optical fibre transmission: light on (full amplitude) or light off (no amplitude). On-off keying (OOK) is a form of AM signal and is therefore sometimes also called Amplitude Shift Keying (ASK). The approach is to let the carrier wave represent a binary one, and no carrier represents a binary zero. Since OOK is an AM-type signaling, the required bandwidth of an OOK signal is 2 times the bit rate. That is, the transmission bandwidth, B t of the OOK signal is Bt = 2B where B is the bandwidth of the modulated signal. The figure below explains the concept.

Figure 4: On/off modulation of light in an Optical fibre [6]

CONCLUSION The transmission of data over electric power line presents various challenges. Enabling data communication over powerlines is a careful combination of various approaches, with certain modifications and enhancements pertaining to the resilient and hostile nature of powerline for transmission of data.

Power line Carrier (PLC) communication systems is a relatively recent and rapidly evolving technology, aimed at the utilization of the electricity powerlines for the transmission of data. Powerline is inherently the most attractive medium for home networking due to its universal existence in homes, the abundance of AC outlets and the simplicity of the power plug. In comparison, the phone line suffers from too few connection points and wireless from congestion at 2.4GHz as well as interference. The potential for powerline to act as a backbone for home networking is great, provided that the powerline is able to provide reliability, security and robustness to meet the requirements of the most demanding applications.

REFERENCES [1] Powerline Telecommunications (PLT): Reference Network Architecture Model; PLT Phase 1, Technical Specifications, ETSI TS 101 896 V1.1.1 (2001- 02)

[2] Powerline Telecommunications (PLT); Quality of Service (QoS) requirements for in-house systems, Technical Report, ETSI TR 102 049 V1.1.1 (2002-05)

[3] Data communications over Power lines, White Paper, Cogency Semiconductor Inc.

[4] HomePlug Powerline Alliance, HTTP://WWW.HOMEPLUG.ORG, accessed July 2003 Advances in Agriculture, Sciences and Engineering Research: Volume 3 (9) Sept: 1151 - 1157, 2013

[5] Powerline System Overview, HTTP://WWW.ABB.DE/PLC, ABB New Ventures GmbH, accessed March 2003

[6] Khurram Hussain Zuberi, Broadband Wireless Access Systems, HTTP://WWW.IT.KTH.SE/BROADBAND_WIRELESS_ACCESS_SYSTEMS.PDF, project Report, June 2003

[7] M. Zimmermann and K. Dostert, A multi-path signal propagation model for the power line channel in the high frequency range, Proc.of the Intl Symp. Power Line Commun. and its Applic. (ISPLC 1999) , pp. 45-51, Mar. 1999.

[8] M. Zimmermann and K. Dostert, A multipath model for the powerline channel, IEEE Trans. Commun, Vol. 50, No. 4, pp. 553-559, Apr. 2002.

[9] S. Zhidkov, Impulsive noise suppression in OFDM based communication systems, IEEE Trans. Consumer Electronics, Vol. 49, No. 4, pp. 944-948, Nov. 2003.

[10] IEEE Standards Association. Available: http://standards.ieee.org/ [08 Dec. 2010].

[11] K. Dostert, Powerline Communications, Prentice-Hall, NJ, 2001.

[12] M. Zimmermann and K. Dostert, Analysis and modeling of impulsive noise in broad-band powerline communications, IEEE Trans. Electromagn.Compat., Vol. 44, No. 1, pp. 249-258, Feb. 2002.

[13] E. Biglieri and P. Torino, Coding and modulation for a horrible channel, Commun. Magazine, vol 41, No. 5, pp. 92-98, May 2003

Achieving reliable high-speed communications over the power line requires robust modulation and equalization techniques to mitigate various hostile channel impairments. Multicarrier orthogonal frequency-division multiplexing (OFDM) has been proposed as the dominant modulation format for power-line communications (PLC). In this paper, we study a single-carrier cyclic prefix (SCCP)-assisted PLC system that employs block data transmission similar to OFDM and propose two frequency-domain equalizers based on the zero forcing and minimum mean-square error criteria. Performance comparisons with OFDM systems of identical system specifications are made via extensive computer simulations under different realistic channel parameters and data rates. The results show that the SCCP-assisted scheme outperforms the OFDM counterpart in most cases through higher frequency diversity exploitation while maintaining almost identical computational complexity. Other salient features of the SCCP technique for PLC applications are discussed. The proposed SCCP-assisted scheme is found to be an attractive alternative modulation technique for broadband PLC